


until the pieces stick back together

by marvelthismarvelthat



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: 5x14 coda, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Team as Family, mama may, mentions of canon-typical violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-19 09:53:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14234718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvelthismarvelthat/pseuds/marvelthismarvelthat
Summary: May knew something was wrong when her team wasn't the one to answer the radio, but nothing could've prepared her for the reality of what had happened.Or, the one in which Daisy gets comforted and has a chance to grieve.





	until the pieces stick back together

**Author's Note:**

> Please note: this is not intended as an anti-Fitz fic. It's simply a fic about Daisy processing her trauma.

May didn’t know what to do with the unusual feeling of panic that rose in her throat when she radioed the Lighthouse to let them know they were on their way back, only to find that nobody on the team was manning the radio. Instead it’d been some lab tech named Crawford that had answered, telling her that the team was dealing with an emergency and all of them were unavailable. 

Crawford hadn’t elaborated, and May hadn’t asked for details.

She didn’t need to, she knew in her gut that something was seriously wrong. She didn’t need to know more until the team told her.

That pit in her stomach only grew as they landed without any word from the team, as she saw that there wasn’t anyone waiting for her in the hangar. In their line of work, no news was bad news. The only reason her team wouldn’t radio her back was if someone was injured or dead, and the news needed to be delivered in person.

May was used to people doing double takes when they saw her, but finding the few personnel they had whispering in hushed tones in the halls, not even bothering to hide their stares as she walked past them trying to find her team filled her with a climbing sense of dread.

Part of her wanted to stop and glare at them until they scurried away. Another part of her wanted to snap at them to get back to work. But the more rational part of her knew that her best bet was to move on and let them keep whispering away. They weren’t her priority.

She knew where one of them was, at least. Elena wasn’t allowed out of the med bay for another few days, and Mack was with her more often than not. Jemma too. They’d know what was going on.

May thought that seeing Mack and Elena safe and alive would help,but when she entered the infirmary only to find them speaking in hushed tones and wearing grim expressions, she only felt more worked up.

“What happened? Where are the others?”

Mack shifted, looking down at the bloodied bandages on his leg. “Fitz is on level seven. Daisy and Jemma are in Daisy’s bunk.”

May frowned, following Mack’s eyes, trying to put the pieces together.  “Level seven is the detention level. Did someone break in?”

“No.” Mack paused, taking a deep breath. “Fitz is in holding. He took out Daisy’s inhibitor.”

Frustration swelled in May’s chest when he didn’t elaborate. “Mack. What the hell do you mean?” Jemma had said removing the inhibitor was dangerous even if a neurosurgeon did it. Why the hell would Fitz do it himself?

“I- He-“ Mack paused and winced. He didn’t know how to tell May about what had happened right under their noses. What he’d let happen to Daisy.

Elena sighed. “He strapped her to a table and took out the thing without her consent… or anesthesia or painkillers.” There was no good way to say it, so she just forced the words out. “That is why he is in holding.”

May balked, her stomach dropping at Mack’s words. “He did  _ what?! _ ” 

Mack shot Elena a pointed look. “We don’t know the specifics, just what Deke told us. He said that Jemma said Fitz was suffering a side-effect from his old injury.”

Elena scoffed. “He still did what he did.”

May clenched her fists, willing herself to keep her emotions in check. She’d been so distracted with keeping Coulson alive that she’d completely missed that something was going on with Fitz. And now Daisy was paying for that. 

But she couldn’t dwell on that now. “Is Daisy okay?” 

Mack shrugged dejectedly. “We haven’t seen her. All we know is that she’s alive and she’s not paralyzed, and that the Rift is now closed.”

Everything about Mack’s demeanor told May that he felt responsible for what had happened. She could see it in the hunch of his shoulders and the lines on his face, and May knew that if he’d look at her, she’d see it in his eyes as well. She wished she could say something to reassure him that it wasn’t his fault, but she knew anything she said right now would fall on deaf ears. 

So she settled for nodding at them, glancing around the room out of habit to make sure they were safe, before turning on her heel and walking away. 

* * *

There was nothing that could’ve prepared May for the heartbreak she felt at sight that met her when she pushed the door to Daisy’s bunk open.

Jemma was sitting cross-legged on the bed, tears running silently down her face as she stroked her fingers through Daisy’s hair, whilst Daisy was laying on her right side facing the door, her head pillowed in Jemma’s lap. There were traces of tears on Daisy’s cheeks and her eyes were swollen, her face unnaturally pale. She looked more defeated than May had ever seen her, as if the vibrant light that made her Daisy had just been snuffed out of her. 

They looked like they’d gone through hell in the mere hours May had been gone.

May took a deep breath, schooling her expression so it was as neutral as she could manage in a situation like this. Her own emotions could wait. Daisy and Jemma needed someone steady to lean on. She could go beat the crap out of a bag in the gym after she made sure they were okay. 

Neither of them reacted to her presence as she stepped into the room, closing the door behind her. Daisy’s eyes were fixed on the wall opposite the bed, and Jemma’s were fixed on Daisy. So she approached them slowly and deliberately, trying not to startle them, and perched on the edge of the bed, gently placing a hand on Daisy’s shoulder.

The contact seemed to bring Daisy back to the present, her eyes flashing quickly to May’s face before looking somewhat dazedly around the room. May didn’t need to read minds to know who she was looking for. Coulson had always been the one the team went to for comfort, Daisy especially. But today he wasn’t here.

May would be lying if she said she didn’t hate him just a little for not being here. For not even attempting to figure out a way to come home with them. Because he’d left her all alone to stitch Daisy and Jemma’s mangled hearts back together.

She shook herself out of that train of thought, letting her thumb rub small circles on Daisy’s shoulder. “You okay?” 

Daisy gave an uninterested half-shrug, the look on her face as blank as May had ever seen it. “It- it hurts everywhere.”

Jemma seemed to snap out of her trance at Daisy’s words, wiping at her tears with the sleeves of her shirt. “It’s the shock. The proce— the removal was—” She sniffled and cleared her throat, attempting to regain some composure. _Traumatic,_ that was the word for what Daisy had suffered. She just couldn’t say it. “The nerve the inhibitor was wrapped around is quite raw at the moment, which is confusing the rest of your nerves. It’ll just take a little time for your body to settle.”

May shifted in place, feeling unusually useless, but knowing she needed to do something. “Simmons, maybe you should go get some rest.” She hated to send Jemma away, but May knew she needed a chance mourn what had happened before she could talk about it. 

But Daisy… May couldn’t even understand the kind of betrayal she was going through, but she knew that if she didn’t talk about it now, she never would. Daisy had already been hurt by so many people that she had trusted. Friends, family. May had always admired her ability to love, even after all she had been through. But what Fitz had done might just prove to be the last straw. 

“Perhaps you’re right,” Jemma muttered, “It’s good you’re here. I should go and check on- I should go.”

If Daisy noticed what Jemma had avoided saying, she didn’t acknowledge it. She barely even moved when Jemma disentangled herself from her, remaining in place and looking incredibly lost at the lack of contact. Jemma hesitated before turning away until May met her eyes and gave her a brief nod. This was a mess, but they didn’t have to fix it alone.

Jemma looked back as she closed the door to see May carefully climbing into the bed and gently maneuvering Daisy’s body until her head was rested on May’s lap, taking over for Jemma as Daisy’s pillow.  Daisy simply sank into her, seemingly too shaken up to even care that she might usually be embarrassed.

Once settled, May gave Jemma another reassuring nod and waited until she closed the door behind her to look down at Daisy and run a hand over the girl’s forehead.

Daisy’s skin was cold and clammy, her body shivering uncontrollably. It made May’s eyes sting with tears as she grabbed the throw blanket at the foot of the bed and draped it over Daisy’s body.

She couldn’t remember a time when she’d seen Daisy so affected by  _ anything. _ Not after Quinn had shot her, not after her mother had tried to kill her. Not even in the days following Lincoln’s death.  She’d always been good at burying her traumas, at swallowing her pain. And when she couldn't hide the pain, she hid herself, preferring to suffer alone than to let anyone see her like that.

For her to be like this, in front of May, in front of Jemma… It spoke volumes.

May swallowed. She wished she knew what to say, how to make it all better. But the bloodied bandage behind Daisy’s ear served as a reminder that this wasn’t anything she could make better. Nothing she said could soothe the hurt that Daisy was going through.

So she just went with her gut, letting her fingers comb through Daisy’s hair, hoping that Daisy wouldn’t try to hide from her this time. “It’s okay to let it out, Daisy. You don’t have to hold on to it.”

For a few seconds, Daisy stayed silent, her chin quivering as she tried to swallow the wave of grief that washed over her. If she started crying she’d never stop. But in the end, she couldn’t hold it all in, and the tears began to fall as the sobs she’d been holding back for hours shook her body. “ I just— He—  It was  _ awful _ . I begged him to stop but he— he just kept— why would he do that to me?”

May closed her eyes and worked her jaw, her fingers continuing to run steadily through Daisy’s hair. “I don’t know.”

That was the only answer she could offer. She couldn’t understand how Fitz could’ve done something like this. The Fitz she’d known for years was sweet and kind. He had a temper, sure, but she’d never thought he was capable of doing something like this. He loved the team. He loved Daisy. But he’d still betrayed her in a way that made May’s stomach roll just thinking about it.   

“It h-hurt so bad. He was my— he was my best friend. W-what did I do to dese—“ Daisy cut off, unable to continue as a fresh wave of sobs made their her way up her throat.

May wasn’t proud of the flash of rage she felt at Daisy’s words. Not at Daisy. Not even at Fitz. But at all the people who had ever hurt Daisy before he had. Who had made her feel like she deserved to be hurt, like she was somehow to blame for the pain  _ they _ caused her.

“Daisy. Listen to me. You did  _ nothing _ to deserve this _. _ ” She paused, the hand not stroking through Daisy’s hair coming up to grip her shoulder firmly. She knew Daisy wouldn’t believe her, but she had to try. “What he did was wrong. This wasn’t your fault.”

Her words only made Daisy sob harder. May could feel the pain was rolling off her in droves as small quakes shook the bed beneath them, the shaking reverberating through May’s bones. 

“I— I can’t forgive him.” Daisy turned her head so her face was buried on May’s thigh, muffling her cries as she took big, gulping breaths in an attempt to calm herself. 

“That’s alright. You don’t have to.”  May replied without hesitation, ignoring the lump of grief that had suddenly risen in her throat. There was no world in which she expected Daisy to forgive Fitz. Nobody should expect her to. 

Fitz may not have been lucid at the time he’d ripped the inhibitor from her neck, but Daisy’s trauma still existed and it had happened at his hand. She was still a victim. And she deserved to deal with that however she needed to. 

“Everyone always hurts me.” Daisy sniffled, her hand shakily coming up and hovering over the bandage on her neck, almost as if she wanted to touch it, before she let it fall onto May’s lap. “I don’t- I just want it to  _ stop. _ ”

“Daisy...” May tapped Daisy’s shoulder, waiting for the girl to meet her eyes. “I’ve got you.” 

She couldn’t make this better. She couldn’t even promise she would never hurt her, the Framework had shown her that. But what she could do was hold all the pieces of Daisy’s broken heart until they stuck back together again. 

Daisy’s eyes lingered on her, searching May’s face before she nodded tremulously and her expression crumbled, the sobs growing in intensity again, causing a particularly strong quake to shake the room.“I want to go home.”

“I know. Me too.” May her lip, trying to hold back the tears that stung at her eyes as Daisy curled into herself, holding on to May’s knee with one hand and pressing her face into her thigh again.

She wasn’t sure what Daisy meant by “home”. Maybe she meant the Playground or a time when the team was in a better place, but she understood the sentiment behind it. This base, the emotions running through the team, the things that were happening—it felt unwelcoming and incredibly lonely. Like they didn’t belong here. 

They didn’t say more after that, they both knew it wasn’t necessary. Daisy just had to take time  to grieve what she’d lost that day, to process the trauma, to cry until there were no more tears left. All she’d needed was for someone to tell her it was okay break down. 

Daisy wasn’t okay now, she probably wouldn’t be for a long time. But May wasn’t going to let her face any of it alone. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you've got a minute, let me know what you thought! I guarantee it'll make my day!
> 
> If you have any prompts, you can find me over on marvelthismarvelthat.tumblr.com :)


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